Discussion

hunk of romano cheese

I bought a huge hunk of Romano cheese for pasta - and I discovered I really prefer parmigiano cheese on pasta - so i want to incorporate this into an appetizer for an upcoming dinner party - any ideas?Thanks.

Simply slice it and add it to a cheese plate, or slice it and add it to a meat plate, or make pate a choux puffs with the grated cheese mixed into the dough, then baked with more of the grated cheese on top of the puffs. You can google a recipe for pate a choux if you don't know. I'm too lazy to do it. :)

Or on garlic bread, in a risotto, in pesto, in soups, on homemade pizza, on bold veggies like spinach or broccoli, anywhere that you might use parmesan. Also, you might want to retry it on pasta using 1/2 parm and 1/2 romano.

If you can fit it in a glass jar, put it in that and store it in the fridge. It will keep for months. If you don't store it in glass, it will gradually dry out, become hard as a rock and will be almost impossible to grate.

I'm sure there are people out there that enjoy mass quantities of Romano, but, for the vast majority, a little goes a very long way. Romano isn't something you can hide in things. If you start amping the quantity in dishes, expect some very peeved dinner party guests.

'Using up' Romano would be a little bit like using up excess garlic, only quite a bit worse. If, say, you made garlic bread where there was more garlic on it than bread, maybe one guest might say "Awesome!" but expect the other guests to never attend another party again.

A little bit is wonderful in pasta sauce. Although that's about the only thing I use it for, I'm sure it's fantastic in other dishes as well- in moderation. Store it carefully and use a little bit at a time. Unless your in a rare situation where you're cooking for someone that really loves it, using tiny amounts over a long period of time is the only sensible approach to Romano.